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Roma

For more than a thousand years, Roma people have been an integral part of European civilisation. Today, with an estimated population of 10-12 million in Europe, approximately six million of whom live in the EU, Roma people are the biggest ethnic minority in Europe.

The available evidence suggests that many Roma (which include Travellers, Gypsies, Manouches, Ashkali and Sinti) live in overwhelmingly poor conditions on the margins of society, and face extreme levels of social exclusion. FRA surveys undertaken in 2008 and 2012 also found that prejudice, intolerance and discrimination affect a large proportion of Roma living in the member states, most of whom are EU citizens.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits any discrimination based on race, colour, ethnic or social origin. The chapters on freedoms and solidarity establish the right to education and access to preventive healthcare and medical treatment. The charter also guarantees respect for cultural, religious and linguistic diversity.

This survey will look at the socio-demographic situation of Roma and Travellers in six EU Member States. It will also look at their experiences of discrimination. Together such data will assess their level of inclusion in these Member States.

LERI is a qualitative action research project under FRA’s multi-annual Roma Programme. It was developed in response to the European Commission’s Communication on an EU Framework for National Roma integration strategies up to 2020. LERI brings together local authorities and residents, in particular Roma, to investigate how they can best be involved in Roma integration actions, and identify which aspects of these actions work, which do not, and why.

This report presents the main insights gained during the EU Fundamental Rights Agency’s project on local engagement for
Roma inclusion, which explores how to best involve Roma in integration efforts at the local level. Bringing together local
authorities and residents, especially Roma, it investigated what aspects work, which ones do not, and why this is the case.

Across the European Union, Member States are faced with the challenge of integrating Europe’s most deprived
and disenfranchised minority groups. As a follow up to the EU-MIDIS II findings on Roma, this report presents
FRA’s findings relating to the issues of education and employment. Encouraging Roma participation in education
and employment equips communities with higher incomes, better life opportunities and greater social inclusion.

The year 2017 brought both progress and setbacks in terms of rights protection. The European Pillar of Social Rights marked an important move towards a more ‘social Europe’. But, as experiences with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights underscore, agreement on a text is merely a first step. Even in its eighth year as the EU's binding bill of rights, the Charter's potential was not fully exploited, highlighting the need to more actively promote its use.